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25 Most Overrated Games of All Time?
AriesGeek writes "GameSpy is running the 1st of a 6-part special on the 25 most overrated games of all time. From the article: 'Over the next several days GameSpy is taking a tour through the 25 most overrated games of all time. It's not a pretty list. It's a tale of tragedy where hype gets out of hand, or good licenses and great ideas fail to live up to expectations.' You think Zero Wing will be on there?" As with previous charts, predictions for the Top 5 are welcome, we'll run another story at the end of the week to see how people did.
And splinter cell should be there. Once you replay the game and the pretty graphics have been seen, you notice the poor AI and the horrible collision detection.
I once clipped through a guard while going up a ladder. The guy didn't notice me. I then jumped on his head. It's a good thing we didn't clip then, I might have hurt my balls.
Daikatana
Tao Feng
Enter the Matrix
DDR
Unreal 2
Resident Evil (even though I love the game)
Sim Copter
"Infants flesh will be in season throughout the year." -Swift
Okay game? Yes. Best ever? Not by a long shot.
Goo goo g'joob.
If anyone remembers Outpost and the previews/reviews it got I'd think youd understand. I got burned by it. I hope it makes the top 5 and lives forever in infamy.
The two Zelda incarnations on the N64 were in my own opinion totally overrated game. It offered somewhat new gameplay, but it just wasn't a Zelda game. It's like that old Coke commercial where you had two guys in front of abottle of a noname Coke-Clone and are comparing it to a real one :
Moves lile coke...
Looks like coke...
Smells like coke...
Tastes like... chicken???
It's as if Nintendo just took the visuals from Zelda and basic story elements (save the princess from Ganon, and you're Link), and used them for a totally unrelated game, like they did with Super Mario Bros 2, which is not a Mario game in Japan. Nintendo swapped the sprites for the American release and named it Mario 2 to cash in the name of the first game.
I remember the Zelda's prior 64 as an all out action game, while the two games on the N64 were about walking a minute in a direction on the world map, kill a monster, walk again, repeat until you reach the next dungeon. I haven't played the latest game, but it looked like a rehash for the 64 version but with cell shading, so I wouldn't call it innovative either.
Think about it:
- Zelda 1 was awesome.
- Zelda 2 was fun, but not a really innovative game.
- Zelda 3 introduced you more of the same, but had a city, somewhat 3d levels, talking characters, two worlds to explore who overlap and more special goodies then you could ever dream of.
- Zelda : The awakening fish or something on the Gameboy was mostly a rehash of Zelda 3.
After that, the only changes were 3D. Nothing to brag about here. Mario 64 was out as the same time as the console and already did that.
I'll go with most of the ones of your list, save Halo and Myst.
First of all, Halo wasn't really "rated" at all. As I recall, when I bought the Xbox along with Halo (one of those infernal bundle deals) the day the xbox hit shelves, the press hadn't been very kind to Halo. In fact, the prior E3 press completely trashed it, citing poor framerate issues, weak gameplay, corny plot and dialogue. The list went on.
2-3 years later (has it really been 3?) and Halo is still *the* reason to own an Xbox. What's more is that it is nearly singlehandedly responsible for reviving the long lost co-op play. In many college dorms, Halo replaced the aging Goldeneye as game of choice. The single player - ehhh good. But Halo's multiplayer impact is unprecedented. Sure, it'd been done on PC. But we're talking two different worlds here, and Halo brought that over to the console.
As far as Myst goes, Myst very much *did* singlehandedly usher in the CD-ROM age. I'll tell you this much: it wasn't that Tim Curry FMV crap that did it. CD-ROMs would've eventually become standard, but it did so in such short a time solely because of Myst. And in reference to my defense post of the Sims, it garnered a huge amount of non-traditional gamers.
Black & White should be first on your list. My guess is that it'll definitely be #1 on Gamespy's.
Hell, I hope not. Homeworld rocks... the only reason I'm not getting HW2 tomorrow is that I need to get things done this month.
Personally, if Master Of Orion 3 isn't on the list, I'll be pretty stunned.
Your trying to push a tough sell chief. Many many many people consider the ocarina of time to be a pinnacle of game design. I for one would argue that Link to the Past is the most zeldaish zelda, and the most fun, but I am not going to try and argue that here. Your position can be likened to trying to argue that the Beatles were a crap band, or the "The Godfather" was a terrible uninspired movie.
In short, you need to be a little more specific in your reasons unless you want to be considered flame-bait on this one. I'm not saying your wrong, I'm just saying your not giving good enough evidence that your right.
Think about it:
- Zelda 1 was awesome. etc...
Last time I checked, "Awesome" is not a subjective term. Assuming that everyone thought Zelda 1 is awesome, and stating this as an irrefutable fact weakens your whole position.
I haven't played the latest game, but it looked like a rehash for the 64 version but with cell shading, so I wouldn't call it innovative either
Now when I read this, it reduces the rest of your post to nothing but a rant without any authority. Why? Because you dismiss a game you haven't even played, and then admit that you didn't play it. If you haven't played the game, you can't say anything about it's merits. I have never played Daikitana, so me saying it sucks is a hollow statement. The same thing goes here.
So in conclusion, you have not a leg to stand on. I welcome all opinions, but opinions without support are a waste of time.
1) Black and White: Cool technology. I bought it, took it home, and was bored in 3 hours. Most damn repetitive gameplay ever created. Which leads me to number 2....
2) Diablo 2: Hey look! It's a hack'n'slash. I can gain levels and I can kill lots of mindless enemies with my friends. I failed to see the appeal to the game when it came out, and, except for a brief moment, I still think it's extremely repetitive and mindless.
3) Everquest: See Diablo 2. Except here, you mulitply all the time factors by 5. Ability system is slightly better.
4) Metal Gear Solid 2: I hate to say this, cause I thought it was a great game, but after playing the first one, it didn't seem all that revolutionary. There's a pop-backlash against this game which had a good (albeit out there at times) story and solid gameplay which was in a class of its own with the exception of the first game.
5) Final Fantasy 7: Good, one of my favorites in the series. It managed to combine new technology in a good way (usually smoothly integrates FMV for the most part rather than the "Oh look, we're doing a movie" like many other RPGs, opening sequence is a good example). Ability system solved the problem of using unused characters (although at the expense of individuality) and had a deeper ability system than gaining levels and completing two quests (I'm looking in your direction FF4). Good storyline (other "old school" FF fanboys tend to dislike to sci-fi feel of the game compared to previous games, and then complain it was unoriginal). But like I said, it doesn't matter what's good or bad, only what people think. And for those of you wondering. I played the original when it came out, and have beaten every one since with the exception of 8.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
If we're talking overhyped at all in context with the article then I firmly vote for The Sims Online.
Jesus Christ! It was on the fucking cover of Newsweek!!
People were expecting hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the service, they saw it bridging the gap and getting "regular folks" into online gaming.
And what happened? Nothing.
Few signed up for it, lag was everywhere, mobs formed in the game and overall it was boring! Who wants to play a game online just to chat with other people? At least in Everquest you get to hit things with swords.
GameSpy's ad department must just looooove slashdot. Hmmm. Funny, that.
Black and White deserved a 10 for concept (something Molyneux is great at) but about 6-7 for execution. While it's cool to have a Giant Cow avatar covered in custom tattoos, it really didn't play well. It was also unbalanced, so playing 'black' was much easier than playing 'white'. I suspect Fable might turn out the same way, but I can always hope...
Funny, I only ever played Dungeon Siege multiplay as well, and I thought it absolutly blew. The game balancing was terrible, if you had more than two or three players the mage skills were useless. Even if you were a fighter the game in multi was just boring. You click to attack a monster, and get up to get a soda, lunch, and a seven course dinner, come back and watch that monster fall, click on the next and go to bed. Sure, in some of the nasitier areas, someone in the group has to be the designated healer, he watches people's health and goes over to their keyboard and hits 'H' every once in a while, but the rest of the players could be doing something else. We tried this game at two separate LAN weekends, the first was ok, the game was fresh, and there is the enjoyment of advancement early on. The second weekend we continued it out of interia, but all of us started to realize just how much the gameplay sucked for multiplayer. We just sort of gave up on it, and have no intention of going back. In fact, we found the most fun on that second weekend in going back to the first areas and killing the level 1 monsters with a single blow, it became a race to who killed the pathetic monster the fastest.
Now, when DS2 releases, we might give it a go. I really did like the premise of the game, though it would be nice to see a broader skillset. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be as broken as the first for multiplayer. There just hasn't been a really good multiplayer game for my group since we beat Diablo 2. I really would love to see a 3 in that series, sure 2 was mostly a rehash of the first, but it had enough new bits to make it fun. And the gameplay is addictive.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.